The strong and weak in faith must receive one another without passing judgment on disputable matters: the weak eat only vegetables while the strong eat everything; one regards certain days as holy while another regards every day alike—each must be fully persuaded in their own mind, not to please themselves but to live for the Lord. The strong must not despise the weak, nor the weak judge the strong, for each will give an account of themselves to God, not to others; Christ is Lord of the living and the dead, and all will stand before the judgment seat of God. The law of love supersedes the law of food: if your food causes your brother to stumble, do not eat it, for it is better not to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, and whatever does not come from conviction (faith) is sin. The kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; the one who serves Christ in these matters is acceptable to God and approved by human beings. Paul thus transforms the weak-strong dispute from an issue of knowledge and principle into an issue of love and conscience, making communal peace and the edification of one another the criterion of acceptable conduct, grounded not in dietary law but in the conscience informed by faith in Christ.
Romans 14:1
Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. — Proslambano (receive, take to oneself) the one with weak pistis (faith, conviction) emphasizes community acceptance despite disagreement. Dialogismoi (disputable matters, reasonings, possibly regarding food laws and holy days) should not trigger diakrisis (division, judging). The strong are called to extend welcome despite doctrinal distance.
Romans 14:2
One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. — The strong (ischyro, mighty) eats panta (all things); the weak (asthenes, infirm, powerless in conviction) abstains to vegetables only. The historical context suggests Jewish dietary laws or pagan idol-meat scruples. The difference marks epistemological divide: the weak see danger; the strong see freedom.
Romans 14:3
The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. — Exouthenizo (treat with contempt, regard as nothing) and krino (judge, separate, condemn) are both forbidden. God's proslēpsis (reception, acceptance) of both proves both have standing. Neither side owns authority to judge the other's conscience.
Romans 14:4
Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master, they stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. — The rhetorical shift: oikeios doulos (household servant) is answerable to their own kyrios (master), not to fellow servants. God is Lord (kyrios) of both strong and weak. Stēmi (stand) twice emphasizes steadiness before the ultimate judge. God's power (dunatos) ensures standing.
Romans 14:5
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. — Krino (esteem, regard as distinct) hēmeran (day) distinctions possibly involves Sabbath observance or festival calendars. Plērophoreo (fully convince, fill completely) in his own dianoia (mind, reasoning) allows each conscience to operate. Conviction (pistis, faith) must be personally owned, not borrowed from others.
Romans 14:6
Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. — The crucial principle: all actions (day-observance, eating) can be done hyper kyriou (for the Lord's honor) through eucharistia (thanksgiving, gratitude). The motive consecrates the practice. Even dietary restriction becomes worship if directed toward God.
Romans 14:7
For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. — Ouk...heautō (not to oneself) establishes that individual believers are not autonomous agents. Zao (live) and apothnēskō (die) are relational events, not solipsistic. The Christian exists coram Deo (before God), not in isolated selfhood.
Romans 14:8
If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. — Zao and apothnēskō are reframed kyrio (to the Lord). Possession (kyriō, to belong to the Lord) transcends the life/death boundary. This recalls 6:9's triumph over death—the Christian's ultimate allegiance supersedes bodily state.
Romans 14:9
For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. — Purpose of apobanō (die) and anistēmi (be raised) is lordship over both nekros (dead) and zao (living). Christ's resurrection is not merely personal victory but coronation establishing universal dominion. All judgment authority flows from this lordship.
Romans 14:10
You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. — The imperative shift directly addresses the strong: why diakrino (judge, condemn) or exoutheneo (despise) your adelphos (brother, sister, member of God's family)? All pantess (all without exception) will stand before bema tou Christou (judgment seat of Christ), a future tribunal where all accounts are settled.
Romans 14:11
It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.'" — Isaiah 45:23 is cited: pantos gonos (every knee) will kampto (bend, bow), and pasa glōssa (every tongue) will homologeō (confess, openly acknowledge) God. This eschatological vision of universal submission forbids present judgment. Only God has authority to judge all.
Romans 14:12
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. — Hekastos (each one) will give logon (account, word) peri heautou (concerning themselves) tō theo (to God). This shifts from communal judgment to individual accountability. Each person stands alone before the divine bar—the strong cannot hide behind their conviction, nor the weak behind community pressure.
Romans 14:13
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. — Diakrisis (judging, condemning) is prohibited. Instead, krino (determine, decide) that you will not place proskopē (stumbling block, obstacle, cause of offense) before your adelphos (brother). Scandal (giving offense that causes to fall) violates the fundamental principle of love.
Romans 14:14
I am convinced, by the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. — Paul reveals his own conviction: ouk estin koinos (nothing is unclean, common, in itself). This reflects Mark 7:15's teaching that defilement is from within, not from external things. However, tō logizomeno (to the one regarding) it as koinos (unclean, common), is it koinos. Conscience shapes moral reality—not objectively but for the person's faith.
Romans 14:15
If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. — Lypeō (grieve, cause sorrow) the weak through elutheria (freedom) in eating violates agapē (love). The rhetorical weight: ei dia bromin (if through food) apollymi (destroy, ruin, lose) your adelphos (brother) for whom Christos apothnesko (Christ died). The weak person's salvation is at stake if stumbled. Love must constrain freedom.
Romans 14:16
Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. — Agathos (good, your freedom) becomes blasphemeō (slandered, spoken against as evil) when wielded without love. The strong's correct knowledge becomes a social scandal if it causes the weak to stumble. Rhetoric about your rights becomes a lie when love is violated.
Romans 14:17
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. — Basileia tou Theou (kingdom of God) consists of dikaiosynē (justice, right-relationship with God), eirēnē (peace, wholeness), and chara (joy, exultation) en pneumati hagiō (in the Holy Spirit). Food observance is peripheral; the Spirit's fruit is central. Dietary disputes are ontologically beneath the kingdom's reality.
Romans 14:18
Whoever thus serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. — Douleuo (serve, minister) tō Christō (to Christ) by prioritizing righteousness-peace-joy is euarestos (pleasing, acceptable) tō theo (to God). Dokimos (approved, proven, tested) becomes para anthrōpois (before/among humans). Love-driven restraint wins approval both divine and human.
Romans 14:19
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. — Diōkō (pursue, chase after) eirēnē (peace) and oikodomeō allēlous (build up one another) sets the goal. Not victory in dietary debate but communal strengthening. This reverses the culture's competitive model toward cooperative growth.
Romans 14:20
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. — Apollymi (destroy, ruin) to ergon tou Theou (God's work, likely referring to the weak person God is building up) di' autou (through food) is gravely wrong. Yes, panta katharē (all things are clean), but kakon (evil, bad) to esthiō (eat) if it becomes stumbling block (proskomma) to another.
Romans 14:21
It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to stumble." — Kalon (noble, excellent) to mē phagein (not eat) meat and mē piein (not drink) wine and mē ti (nothing) that causes your brother to proskoptō (stumble, be offended). This is the strongest form of love: voluntary renunciation of adiaphora (indifferent matters) to protect the weak.
Romans 14:22
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. — Pistis (faith, conviction) hēn echeis pros seauton echē (keep to yourself before God) acknowledges that conscience is God's domain. Makarios (blessed, happy) the one who doesn't condemn himself through his own dokimazo (approval, testing). Self-judgment can paralyze; freedom to own conviction before God liberates.
Romans 14:23
But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. — The weak who eat diakrino (doubt, judge, are uncertain) are katakrino (condemned, judged, found guilty) because their eating is not ek pisteōs (from faith, personal conviction). The principle is radical: ho ti ouk ek pisteōs (whatever is not from faith) is hamartia (sin, missing the mark). Not the act but the divorced-from-conviction act is sin.